Prosus CEO flags India as top priority, accelerates AI investments

Highlighting India as the company’s most important growth market, Fabricio Bloisi, group chief executive officer (CEO) of the Dutch technology investor Prosus signaled a sharp acceleration in artificial-intelligence investments across its portfolio in the country.

 

He termed the country as central to Prosus’ long-term strategy in areas such as payments, mobility, travel and AI-enabled consumer services.

 

“India is our top priority,” Bloisi told Business Standard during the company’s H1FY26 Results media call.

 

The Dutch investor posted steady growth in its India operations for the six months ended September 30, 2025, led by a stronger PayU performance and continued momentum across its broader portfolio.

 

Prosus said PayU India registered 20 per cent revenue growth to $397million. The business continues to grow its client base after a slight hiatus associated with obtaining the payment aggregator licence from the regulator. As it builds its base, PayU India is focused on profitable growth. This focus is evident in the substantial improvement in its aEbitda margin, which rose by 6 percentage points from -6 per cent in H1FY25 to breakeven in H1FY26, with a profitable Q2FY26.

 

Prosus, which holds a 25 per cent stake in Swiggy, reported robust demand in the six months ended June 2025. Swiggy’s customer base expanded 35 per cent year-on-year to 21.6 million, while gross order value rose 43 per cent, fueled by growth in food delivery and new formats such as Bolt. Food delivery gross order value climbed 18 per cent, alongside improving profitability, Prosus said.

 

Swiggy’s quick commerce unit, Instamart, more than doubled its gross order value, up 105 per cent, with average order value rising 26 per cent in the quarter. Still, continued investment in quick commerce widened Swiggy’s adjusted Ebitda loss to $178 million from $85 million a year earlier.

 

Prosus said its Indian ecosystem is evolving through better execution and acquisitions of high-potential businesses. PayU is increasingly connected across this ecosystem, adding new partnerships with Swiggy, Meesho and PharmEasy, and opportunities for synergies more widely. Bloisi said the turnaround in PayU—Prosus’ largest India asset—highlights the strength of the company’s integrated model.

 

In India, Prosus has also invested $350 million in ride-hailing firm Rapido and $146 million in a stake in online travel agent Ixigo. Bloisi said Rapido is now positioned as “the number one mobility company in India,” and Ixigo is also “growing very fast in the online travel agents area.” He said Prosus expects to help both businesses scale rapidly while drawing them deeper into the company’s broader ecosystem.

 

AI investments

 

Bloisi revealed that his next priority is major AI investments in India. The Netherlands-based firm, which has invested nearly $9 billion over the years in India across companies like food-delivery giant Swiggy and ecommerce platform Meesho, has made multiple AI investments in the last few months — including education platform Arivihan and developer tool CodeKarma — as it positions AI as a “central pillar” of its Indian strategy. Bloisi signalled that the company intends to keep up a similar pace.

 

“My priority now is to invest more in AI in India,” he said. 

 

Bloisi also recounted a recent meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Indian leader’s visit to South Africa, saying the talks centered on deepening cooperation in technology and AI, and on expanding Prosus’ investment ties with India. Bloisi said he told Prime Minister Modi that there is a need to be exceptional in AI in India, to keep using technology for the good of the population.

 

“It was a great conversation about how we believe that investing in AI in India is critical to India,” he said. “We value his leadership in terms of how India uses technology over the last 10 years, with UPI, and the identification technology to benefit the whole India population.”

 

Ashutosh Sharma, head of India ecosystem, Prosus said India continues to be one of the three very important focus areas for the company. “What we are trying to build is where we can actually help companies beyond just providing capital,” said Sharma. 

 

Prosus said it is building the future with AI, and already has more than 20,000 AI agents helping it scale quicker and make smarter decisions.

 

“Our focus on results and innovation, backed by our Prosus Way culture, means we’re on track to meet FY26 targets. But this is just the start, as we work to unlock an AI-first world for our 2 billion customers.”

 

Edtech bets

 

Asked about India’s edtech sector, where Prosus was a major backer of troubled firm Byju’s, Bloisi acknowledged the setbacks, but said the company remains focused on backing high-potential entrepreneurs.

 

“If you can deliver technology to improve education, this is an amazing goal and I personally love it,” Bloisi said. “Byju’s was a bet that we did. I don't have a lot of details on it because it was much before my time. Obviously, things went wrong. We lost money and more people lost money. Some people ask me, is this the end of (edtech) kind of investments? Obviously not, we have to take risks to create amazing results. Sometimes we make mistakes. And we are going to learn and do better next time.”